If you still haven’t noticed, this year has been looking a little different: greeting students at the entrance are new solar panels and a new coat of paint! More impressive, however, isn’t the addition of things to buildings, it’s the destruction of them.

The first phase of a $170 million infrastructure goal— “Transform. Together. 2026.” — included the tearing down of over half of the Cross Bridge Church (where many classes used to be) leaving only the sanctuary standing. Along with the church, the Sean Taylor Memorial Field was demolished over the summer. Among the many consequences these two changes have caused (home games must be played at Tropical Park, there’s less space to eat lunch and hang out), the addition of modular classrooms off the side of the field has offered a different experience to both students and teachers.

“I think they’re awesome. They’re really spacious, they’re clean. There’s good lighting. It’s a really good environment for the students to come in,” said Daniella Brenha, a business teacher whose classroom was moved from the church to one of the mods.

Mrs. Brenha only had positive things to say about the mods much like many students who were pleasantly surprised by the new locations of their classes.

“I think that they’re pretty comfortable. There’s a lot of space, much more than there is in the normal classes,” said senior Miranda Rodriguez.

Junior Diego Collazo agreed with Rodriguez adding that since the mods are spacious and large, they create a more positive working environment than that of a traditional classroom. Collazo also said that even though there’s daily construction next to the mods, the sound does not travel into the classrooms. An almost perfect opinion about the mods was stained by a simple technicality, however.

“The only negative thing is that there’s no coverage to get to the mods when it rains,” said Collazo.

True, since there’s no cover provided when it rains, students and faculty get wet when walking to or from the mods. This was a similar issue for students who had class in the church building last year, which was an even longer walk away from the main campus buildings.

If you don’t have a class in the mods, you might not know that they’re actually environmentally friendly. Motion detection lights automatically turn off, saving electricity and energy. This is different from normal classroom lights that are usually left on when students and teachers leave for lunch or breaks, wasting energy.

Overall, the general consensus around campus is that the mods are great. In a poll out of 50 students, 41 said that they liked learning in the mods. Even if they’ll be gone when construction is over, the mods served as a great substitute for classrooms lost to construction.